PLATE SIX

“Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu continued to describe His pastimes with
Lord Krsna in Vrndavana: ‘In Vrndavana, the trees and creepers are won-
derful because throughout the entire year they produce all kinds of fruits
and flowers. The gopis and maidservants in the bowers of Vrndavana
pick these fruits and flowers and bring them before Radha and Krsna. The
gopis peeled all the fruits and placed them together on large plates on a
platform in the jeweled cottage. They arranged the fruit in orderly rows
for eating, and in front of it they made a place to sit. Among the fruits
were many varieties of coconut and mango, bananas, berries, jackfruits,
dates, tangerines, oranges, blackberries, santaras, grapes, almonds and all
kinds of dried fruit. There were cantaloupes, ksirikas, palmfruits, kesuras,
water fruits, lotus fruits, bael, pilu, pomegranate and many others. Some
of them are variously known in different places, but in Vrndavana they
are always available in so many thousands of varieties that no one can
fully describe them. At home Srimati Radharani had made various types of
sweetmeats from milk and sugar, such as gangdajala, amrtakeli,
piydsagranthi, karpdrakeli, sarapdri, amrti, padmacini and kanda-ksirisara-
vrksa. She had then brought them all for Krsna. When Krsna saw the very
nice arrangement of food, He happily sat down and had a forest picnic.’ ”
(pp.167-170)
